Opinion Individuals matter
Even after 62 years of independence,we have not built and strengthened the institutions that are required to ensure that the fruits of democracy are enjoyed by our citizens....
Even after 62 years of independence,we have not built and strengthened the institutions that are required to ensure that the fruits of democracy are enjoyed by our citizens (By the people?,IE,November 5). We are still in the planning and building phase. This requires capable people with scruples and the moral authority to guide these institutions into a beacon of hope for the masses. We need the right people in the right places during this building phase. The article may be more appropriate for a country like the US where institutions are already well developed.
Jayadev Nair
Picking causes
Your editorial Looking backward (November 2) rightly upbraids BJP President Rajnath Singh for unnecessarily raising the bogey of religious conversions. It is really pathetic to see a party with nationalist pretensions wandering helplessly like a headless chicken,clutching at any straw to stay relevant in the national political discourse.
Management experiments show that successful behaviour tends to get repeated,whence the tendency on part of BJP leadership to keep reverting to sensitive issues related to religion. What they fail to realise is that lot of water has flown down the Ganges since the heady days of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement,and now there are diminishing returns. While Rajnath and others in the Sangh Parivar try hard to shut entry points for scheming proselytisers,they leave the front door of the house open for them by not speaking out for the Dalits who were denied entry to Ekambareshwarar Temple in Tamil Nadu. There must be many temples all over India where this apartheid is still being practiced.
Ajay Tyagi
That 80s show
As Anu Kumar points out in Children of the 80s (IE,November 3),it was the generation of the late 70s and early 80s that experienced radical changes in Indian society. No generation before or after could have or can understand what it meant to have political,religious,financial and of course social revolutions taking place simultaneously.
Kartik Srivastava
New Delhi
Banking on myths
Ila Patnaik has conveyed the real picture of pubic sector banking of India in a commendable way (Pick apart this myth,IE,November 4). Forty years after bank nationalisation,banking in terms of access to credit is still a distant dream to the urban and local poor. Various SHGs and microfinance institutions have come forward with innovative ideas. But opening more and more branches of nationalised banks in the countryside without initiating competition among service providers creates financial behemoths depleting the countrys resources. The public sector banking system in India should come out of its self-celebratory mode and concentrate on making banking an economically inclusive social phenomenon.
Sandeep Krishan
Abohar
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